Darjeeling, Nov. 13: A 14-year-old student of St Joseph’s School (North Point) was crushed to death by an army vehicle on NC Goenka Road here, sparking mob frenzy that shut down the hill town for the day.
Harsh Agarawal’s face had been “crushed beyond recognition”.
Some officers of the Dogra Regiment, currently stationed at Lebong, were almost lynched by the crowd when they came to inquire into the incident. The officers were slapped and assaulted and Col SS Danu’s identity card was snatched away before the arrival of police and the intervention of the Gorkha Nari Morcha. Around 100 women members of the Morcha put up a human wall between the officers and the crowd.
The killer vehicle was damaged, pelted with stones and the glass panes smashed. The other trucks in the convoy were also targeted. The Gypsy that had brought Col Danu was overturned by a mob at Chowk Bazar. Another army vehicle which was coming to town from Lebong, was chased out during the same time.
Harsh, a Class VII student whose school was closed because of the Gorkha Janmukti Vidhayarti Morcha’s two-day student strike, was returning from his father’s shop in Chowk Bazar around 12.45pm when he came under the wheels of the vehicle, one in the convoy of seven.
Sandip Lakhotia, an eyewitness, said there were three children standing at the bend when suddenly the army truck (OID-139539L) tried to reverse. “The two children managed to duck but one of them fell and was crushed”. The bend where the incident took place is narrow and always crowded.
Shiv Agarawal, Harsh’s uncle, said: “The skull was completely crushed and the face distorted beyond recognition.”
Although heavy vehicles are not allowed to move in town between 8am and 8pm, there were no restrictions for army vehicles.
The driver of the vehicle, Arup Roy of the Army Service Corps, has been arrested but has not yet been handed over to police. The police said the convoy was coming from 17th Mile in Gangtok. The body of the boy was brought to the police station around 3.30pm.
By then, another crowd had assembled in front of the police station. The people smashed the window panes of the building, following which the Commando Force —a team from the district police that functions as the anti-riot force — resorted to a lathicharge.
Asha Gurung, the wife of Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, arrived at the spot and calmed the mob.
Father Kinley Tshering, the rector of St Joseph's school said: “I express my condolence to the bereaved family. The scheduled programmes like socials on Saturday and a school fete on Sunday will be put off till further notice as a mark of respect to Agarawal.”
According to police, the army driver will be charged under Section 279 and 304 A of the IPC (rash and negligent driving and thereby causing death) but he will have to be handed over to the military even though the trial will take place in a civilian court.
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